December 24, 2012

Redwood Rain Forest

This was on one of my "mad dash" photo trips where I was trying to travel 3,000 miles in a week and photograph as much of it as I could. A sunny day in deep forest isn't ideal conditions, it is better for it to be overcast so the clouds can soften the light and eliminate harsh shadow which narrows the dynamic range from impossible to possible. Because of the impossible light I bracketed my shot for HDR processing because of the latitudinal deferential of the dynamic range. I processed this photo a few times over the years but was never happy with it. This time it worked to the effect I finally achieved an OK photo after hours invested. Too much time but not considering the lessons learned along the way it was time well spent. If this place wasn't a thousand miles from my home I would have rather re-shot it under better light.

I love the redwoods and I once lived in them 150 miles south of here but it takes a lot of rain to build trees like these and I hated the rain. I do wish I had been a photographer then.

I have been freelancing
landscape, lifestyle and wildlife photography since the mid 80’s. The quest for
light drives we photographers to search out pretty places or to dissect our
surroundings to find illumination to capture where we are. It makes us seek out
beautiful things even in adverse conditions. During our dailytravel, we are looking for a beautiful
rectangle we can isolate out of the chaos of life.

My freelance photography
bifurcated to include graphic design work, which opened the door to web
publishing requiring that I learned to write. I publish the Greater Yellowstone Resource Guidefor those planning to visit Yellowstone.